Update: 4/15/06 Liz (I Speak of Dreams) did a terrific roundup of this conversation! Don’t miss it.
I’ve been considering Molly’s thought-provoking question for the weekend. Who do I blog for? Me. But it wasn’t always that way.
Originally I started blogging because Denise said I should try it before slamming it (of course, it was too late by then — I’d already slammed it) and (repeat after me…) Denise is always right.
I also started blogging because my boss told me to, as an experiment to learn how blogging worked.
Those were my Blogger days. They didn’t last long because when you have an addiction you find the need to feed it, nurture it, decorate it, and take it out for a spin. Hence, my own domain, Wordpress, and lots of design experiments.
I honestly never thought I’d take to it because I have never liked keeping a journal. Handwriting things takes too darn long and doing it on the computer was just not organized enough for me.
I was amazed to discover that I not only loved it, it became something that I rewarded myself with at the end of the day. I’d push myself through whatever I had left with the promise that I could blog when I was done. I’d find myself thinking of ways to write about things that had happened that day, or topics that I had a strong opinion on.
T was thrilled — by blogging my opinions, I didn’t shove them down his throat quite so strongly, which is great when a Democrat and a Republican are married and really want the marriage to work. It’s not just politics — my Democrat bent creeps into lots of areas of opinion, so it’s good to have an outlet where I don’t have to pick a fight with my husband every time I want to express an opinion.
The icing on the cake: the ability to easily post and publish photos. For 20 years I’ve had a camera in my hand as much as possible. Since 2004 it’s been a Nikon D70. It took me over a year to learn the Nikon system after having a Canon AT-1 since 1978, but I finally think I’m getting there. The thing is, having a camera and taking pictures isn’t as much fun when you don’t have a way to display them, so it didn’t take me long to merge my photoblog into this one.
I’m thrilled that what I post here and the photos I publish are interesting enough for others to actually read or look at them. It encourages me to stretch myself into new areas and to be less afraid to experiment. In some ways it’s made me overcome aspects of tendency toward self-criticism/editing, and in others I’ve become more self-critical, but in positive ways (if that makes sense).
The one thing that has bothered me about blogging in the larger context of community is the implied need for a focus. Over at Blogher, I’m listed as a mommyblogger. I don’t consider that a negative term, but I don’t view it as an accurate description for this blog, either. In fact, after the initial listing I asked to have the category changed to the “personal” category, but it didn’t get changed and so “mommyblogger” I am over there.
I don’t know what focus/category this blog belongs in, or what I am, really. Maybe eclectician? Jane of all trades, mistress of none? Do I really need a category? Is it okay to be just whatever I am today? I hope so, because I really don’t know how to do it any other way and get as much joy out of blogging as I do right now.
Why do you blog?
